Showing posts with label Beamer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beamer. Show all posts
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Kira's Boyfriend Moves In
In March of 2013 our fourth horse (Yes, we really have four now!) moved in. It was an interesting move. The day we went to see him it was windy. Very wind. 45mph guesting to 60mph. We had to drive from Arvada to Yuma, roughly 160 miles one way. On the way to Yuma the wind was at our back. I burned less than a 1/4 tank of fuel. On the way back to home we burned the remaining 3/4 of the tank. That was some serious wind! Here is Boyfriend.
This was just before their first parade together.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Summer ends, School Starts
Here we are at the end of September and much has been happening since the last time I was here. First, one of our visitors deciphered the t-shirt. I sum 8 pi (I eat some pie). Great shirt for the match geeks among us.
So what has happened since then. When last I left you, White Olympics were underway. Well, Kumi's whip team, White Belle Star, won best ground specialty and the sportsmanship award. They did a great job. Here is Kumi and two of her teammates doing a pyramid.
So what has happened since then. When last I left you, White Olympics were underway. Well, Kumi's whip team, White Belle Star, won best ground specialty and the sportsmanship award. They did a great job. Here is Kumi and two of her teammates doing a pyramid.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Summer Time
What the heck happened to summer!? I find it a bit hard to believe that the last time I posted was on June 2nd and it is August 9th. Its not like nothing happened, I just don't know where the time went.
Random Picture - What does it say?
So, what has happened since Interclub?
In June Kumi had her first show as a Crimson Ranger. It was a two day show (almost) and I don't have a single picture. You see, I was flag dadding and barn dadding. I was so busy that I did not get to take any pictures. I did see her ride and her team did a great job. Rumor has it that the director of Westernaires said the Crimson Rangers put on a better drill than the Precisionettes. Pretty cool.
Random Picture - What does it say?
So, what has happened since Interclub?
In June Kumi had her first show as a Crimson Ranger. It was a two day show (almost) and I don't have a single picture. You see, I was flag dadding and barn dadding. I was so busy that I did not get to take any pictures. I did see her ride and her team did a great job. Rumor has it that the director of Westernaires said the Crimson Rangers put on a better drill than the Precisionettes. Pretty cool.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Been a while
It has been a while. It always seems like this time of year, between New Years and spring, is a kind of slow time of year. There is not a lot going on. Not much for holidays, the weather is cold and the days are short so there is not a lot going on outside. We get up, got to work or school, come home, make dinner and work on home work and watch TV. Repeat ad nauseum. I'm not complaining, it has just always been a slow time of year. But, there is always a little something going on.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Stall Rest and rainy days.
Beamer got hurt. I have no idea how. He got a deep scrape high up on the inside of his right rear leg. Real high. Like just below the stifle high. There is nothing in the pasture or the barn that he could have scrapped it on. My only guess is that he got kicked. By Ebony. She has been asserting herself a bit lately and I saw her actually bite Beamer at feeding time the other day.
Well, B's leg was sore and the cut was a little deep so it was time for some antibiotic cream and a bandage. We got out the stuff and put a nice pad with antibiotic cream on it, wrapped that with brown cotton gauze and wrapped that with vet wrap. It looked pretty good. We stood back to admire our work and B picked up his leg. You know how they are, if there is something tight on their leg they have to pick up their leg and shake it. Our fine job of bandaging shot right down to his hock and stayed. Nuts. We tried again only this time we used tape to hold things in place. Again we stood back to admire our work (Kumi was helping) and again we failed miserably. Obviously I am a newbie to this whole horse ownership gig and my bandaging skills have not progressed. Frankly, I hope I don't have many opportunities to practice bandaging considering.
So we put B on stall rest for a couple of days. He wasn't real thrilled with the idea but what are you gonna do when somebody locks you into a stall? What was interesting is the other two horses. In one of my earlier posts I told you that we were trying to get hay in the pasture all the time. So far, it has been working out. Mariah is a bit heavier than I would like while Beamer and Ebony are still a bit ribby. And they are eating more. Time to order hay again.
Anyway, they normally spend all day camped out around the feeder. But when B was in the stall, the other two would go up and stand next to him. It was kind of cute. I tried to get a picture but they saw me coming and figured treats were in their future. They weren't but by then the picture has passed.
And then it rained. It rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain in Colorado. I sent these two pictures to the girls who had just finished giving the horses bathes a couple of day before the rain started.
How can you be mad at somebody who looks as happy as these two do?
On the down side, at 1:30 in the morning my phone rang with Kumi's ring tone. She had water pouring in her window. Really big nuts!!! I told her to go get towels and I ran outside and started the tractor. I had been doing a pit of earth work earlier in the day and I had (stupidly) left a ridge of dirt across a drainage path. It was just tall enough to create a pond t hat was deeper than Kumi's window well was tall so her window well filled up. The windows are poorly fitting and just let the water pour in. I used the tractor to scrape the dirt back and the pond immediately began to drain. Right towards the other window well that was also starting to fill. So the tractor and I headed around to the back of the house and cut a small ditch that channeled the water away from the other window well. It worked! I love my tractor. Not as much as my horse, but I love my tractor.
Now all I had to do was go in and clean up the mess. Which means taking everything out of her room, pealing back the carpet and dragging out the padding which is nothing more than a big sponge, vacuum out the water and set a fan to dry things out. This is the second time this has happened to us and I learned a lot from the first round. (Apparently not enough to actually prevent a second occurrence but as Scott Adams says, we are all idiots sometimes.) If you call Servepro and have them do the work for you, for a 12 by 12 room with relatively little water it will run you anywhere between $750 and $1500 to have them do the work. Insurance will generally not cover this as it was outside water coming in, more commonly known as flooding.
But, if you can do it yourself, you can get things cleaned up for around $300. The trick is to act fast. Get the walls wiped down immediately. Within the first 12 hours peel up the carpet and get the padding out. The padding cannot be saved so don't even bother. Next step is to get the water out of the carpet. A shop vacuum will not do it, they are just not powerful enough. You need something will real suction power like a carpet cleaner. I called Stanley Steamer and they came out and "cleaned" the effected area and it only cost $99.00 (it would have been less but that is their minimum charge). As soon as they are done, get to the rental store and rent a carpet blower. The trick here is put the blower UNDER the carpet. Just fold back a corner, put the blower on the floor and then fold the carpet back over the top of the blower. A clamp helps hold things in place. Turn the blower on and let it run for about 3 days. The carpet kind of blows up like a big balloon. Since its cheaper to rent by the week you can let the blower go for a whole week. By placing the blower under the carpet, it forces air up through the carpet and it is much much more efficient at drying things out. If you can get things done within the first 24 hours the chances of growing mold go way way down. The tricky part is to find a carpet installer who can then come back and relay and stretch the carpet for you. Unless you know how to stretch carpet, I strongly recommend you get a carpet installer to do this.
And there you have it, do it yourself disaster recovery. Not for everyone but certainly not as difficult as we are led to believe.
Oh, and I did learn my lesson this time. Since that window is a single pane basement window that is never opened, I purchased a piece of 1/4" Plexiglas and siliconed it into the window frame. The piece of Plexiglas that was 32 by 14 was $54 and I thought that was crazy and wasn't going to do it. But then I remembered what it costs to clean things up when water gets in and decided that $54 is pretty darn cheap insurance. Now water cannot get in if the well should happen to fill up again.
Well, B's leg was sore and the cut was a little deep so it was time for some antibiotic cream and a bandage. We got out the stuff and put a nice pad with antibiotic cream on it, wrapped that with brown cotton gauze and wrapped that with vet wrap. It looked pretty good. We stood back to admire our work and B picked up his leg. You know how they are, if there is something tight on their leg they have to pick up their leg and shake it. Our fine job of bandaging shot right down to his hock and stayed. Nuts. We tried again only this time we used tape to hold things in place. Again we stood back to admire our work (Kumi was helping) and again we failed miserably. Obviously I am a newbie to this whole horse ownership gig and my bandaging skills have not progressed. Frankly, I hope I don't have many opportunities to practice bandaging considering.So we put B on stall rest for a couple of days. He wasn't real thrilled with the idea but what are you gonna do when somebody locks you into a stall? What was interesting is the other two horses. In one of my earlier posts I told you that we were trying to get hay in the pasture all the time. So far, it has been working out. Mariah is a bit heavier than I would like while Beamer and Ebony are still a bit ribby. And they are eating more. Time to order hay again.
Anyway, they normally spend all day camped out around the feeder. But when B was in the stall, the other two would go up and stand next to him. It was kind of cute. I tried to get a picture but they saw me coming and figured treats were in their future. They weren't but by then the picture has passed.
And then it rained. It rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain in Colorado. I sent these two pictures to the girls who had just finished giving the horses bathes a couple of day before the rain started.
How can you be mad at somebody who looks as happy as these two do?On the down side, at 1:30 in the morning my phone rang with Kumi's ring tone. She had water pouring in her window. Really big nuts!!! I told her to go get towels and I ran outside and started the tractor. I had been doing a pit of earth work earlier in the day and I had (stupidly) left a ridge of dirt across a drainage path. It was just tall enough to create a pond t hat was deeper than Kumi's window well was tall so her window well filled up. The windows are poorly fitting and just let the water pour in. I used the tractor to scrape the dirt back and the pond immediately began to drain. Right towards the other window well that was also starting to fill. So the tractor and I headed around to the back of the house and cut a small ditch that channeled the water away from the other window well. It worked! I love my tractor. Not as much as my horse, but I love my tractor.
Now all I had to do was go in and clean up the mess. Which means taking everything out of her room, pealing back the carpet and dragging out the padding which is nothing more than a big sponge, vacuum out the water and set a fan to dry things out. This is the second time this has happened to us and I learned a lot from the first round. (Apparently not enough to actually prevent a second occurrence but as Scott Adams says, we are all idiots sometimes.) If you call Servepro and have them do the work for you, for a 12 by 12 room with relatively little water it will run you anywhere between $750 and $1500 to have them do the work. Insurance will generally not cover this as it was outside water coming in, more commonly known as flooding.
But, if you can do it yourself, you can get things cleaned up for around $300. The trick is to act fast. Get the walls wiped down immediately. Within the first 12 hours peel up the carpet and get the padding out. The padding cannot be saved so don't even bother. Next step is to get the water out of the carpet. A shop vacuum will not do it, they are just not powerful enough. You need something will real suction power like a carpet cleaner. I called Stanley Steamer and they came out and "cleaned" the effected area and it only cost $99.00 (it would have been less but that is their minimum charge). As soon as they are done, get to the rental store and rent a carpet blower. The trick here is put the blower UNDER the carpet. Just fold back a corner, put the blower on the floor and then fold the carpet back over the top of the blower. A clamp helps hold things in place. Turn the blower on and let it run for about 3 days. The carpet kind of blows up like a big balloon. Since its cheaper to rent by the week you can let the blower go for a whole week. By placing the blower under the carpet, it forces air up through the carpet and it is much much more efficient at drying things out. If you can get things done within the first 24 hours the chances of growing mold go way way down. The tricky part is to find a carpet installer who can then come back and relay and stretch the carpet for you. Unless you know how to stretch carpet, I strongly recommend you get a carpet installer to do this.
And there you have it, do it yourself disaster recovery. Not for everyone but certainly not as difficult as we are led to believe.
Oh, and I did learn my lesson this time. Since that window is a single pane basement window that is never opened, I purchased a piece of 1/4" Plexiglas and siliconed it into the window frame. The piece of Plexiglas that was 32 by 14 was $54 and I thought that was crazy and wasn't going to do it. But then I remembered what it costs to clean things up when water gets in and decided that $54 is pretty darn cheap insurance. Now water cannot get in if the well should happen to fill up again.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Vandalized!!
That's right, our barn was vandalized. By our horses.
Apparently, when I went out to feed the other morning (about 5:30am) I got a bit distracted and left on of the stall doors open a bit. About 4:00pm I got a text that said, "Naughty, naughty horses." Since it had been raining I figured that they had been rolling in the mud again. I was wrong. They had discovered the open stall door. It wasn't open very far but they had a fix for that. Simply push against the door until the bottom board holding the guiding wheel comes offthe post and presto, they're in.
Once in, they are staring at about 90 bales of hay. Yum Yum. I imagine the conversation between the horses went something like this:
Horse 1: WOW! Look at all that hay.
Horse 2: Cool.
Horse 3: Which one should we eat?
Horses 1 and 2: One?!
Horse 1: Lets try them ALL!
And so they proceeded to start pulling bales off the pile and sample each one looking for just the right bale.
Horse 1: This one is to small!
Horse 2: This one is to dry!
Horse 3: This one is not sweet enough!
After about 4 bales the grooming isle was so full of hay that they couldn't really get any more down. But they did manage to spread those four bales around pretty well. And then they pooped on it. At some point, the Arabian Bandit (as Beamer will hence forth be known) decided that that tantalizing smell of grain needed to be investigated and figured out how to open the grain barrel.
About 4:00 Kira went to check on them because it was raining and she couldn't see them. Ebony is usually forced to stand in the rain so if its raining hard we will throw a rain sheet on her to help her stay a bit more comfortable. (In Colorado the rain is cold and their summer coat will not keep them warm during a long, cold, rainy night.) She found Mariah in the grooming isle munching on hay. Ebony in the door of the stall with a bale of hay wedged in the door munching away and the Arabian Bandit with his head in the grain barrel contentedly munching away.
Oh-oh. To much grain is BAD for horses. Colic bad. Dead in 24 hours colic bad. I normally give each of them 1 quart in the morning mostly just to supplement the hay. I looked in the barrel and it looked like the Arabian Bandit only ate a few pounds but we had to be careful. Of all the horses to get into the grain, B was probably then best one. He does not take huge mouth fulls, he just nibbles his way through his grain. Takes him twice as long as the other two to eat his grain but that's okay.
The vet suggested that we exercise them a bit so we took them for a walk. We would have liked to ride but it had just stopped raining and the footing was a bit too slippery for comfort. So Kira and I put halters on them and spent the next hour an a half walking the horses around the neighborhood. It was kind of a nice walk actually. Kira and I chatted and I need the exercise as well.
When we got back we checked stomach sounds, all good. Though Ebony got in trouble. Ebony was brood mare and does NOT like an ear pressed into her side. She tried to cow kick me a couple of times. Tried. Enough said.
We put them back in the pasture and then one of the differences between kids and horses became apparent. If the kids had vandalized the barn, they would have cleaned it up. Instead, I was cleaning up the barn while the girls worked on school projects as this is the last week of school. I am bagging up the fouled hay, sorting out the clean hay and cleaning things up. All the while there were three horses following my every move. Ears up, eyes bright, looking very innocent and expectant, wondering when I was going to give them some more hay. The ran away briefly when I turned on a horse eating drill to drive some screws into the stall door guide to fix that.
Just before I went back in to start dinner, I spread out a small bit of hay so that I wouldn't have to deal with the said eyes and mournful faces of three horses who didn't get fed at feeding time. (It was just a small bit of hay and the vet said that would be okay.)
I am happy to report that all three horses were fine the next morning and the pasture was full of poop. No colic.
Horse people must seem really strange to the rest of the civilized world. Not many people find poop an acceptable topic for conversation.
Apparently, when I went out to feed the other morning (about 5:30am) I got a bit distracted and left on of the stall doors open a bit. About 4:00pm I got a text that said, "Naughty, naughty horses." Since it had been raining I figured that they had been rolling in the mud again. I was wrong. They had discovered the open stall door. It wasn't open very far but they had a fix for that. Simply push against the door until the bottom board holding the guiding wheel comes offthe post and presto, they're in.
Once in, they are staring at about 90 bales of hay. Yum Yum. I imagine the conversation between the horses went something like this:
Horse 1: WOW! Look at all that hay.
Horse 2: Cool.
Horse 3: Which one should we eat?
Horses 1 and 2: One?!
Horse 1: Lets try them ALL!
And so they proceeded to start pulling bales off the pile and sample each one looking for just the right bale.
Horse 1: This one is to small!
Horse 2: This one is to dry!
Horse 3: This one is not sweet enough!
After about 4 bales the grooming isle was so full of hay that they couldn't really get any more down. But they did manage to spread those four bales around pretty well. And then they pooped on it. At some point, the Arabian Bandit (as Beamer will hence forth be known) decided that that tantalizing smell of grain needed to be investigated and figured out how to open the grain barrel.
About 4:00 Kira went to check on them because it was raining and she couldn't see them. Ebony is usually forced to stand in the rain so if its raining hard we will throw a rain sheet on her to help her stay a bit more comfortable. (In Colorado the rain is cold and their summer coat will not keep them warm during a long, cold, rainy night.) She found Mariah in the grooming isle munching on hay. Ebony in the door of the stall with a bale of hay wedged in the door munching away and the Arabian Bandit with his head in the grain barrel contentedly munching away.
Oh-oh. To much grain is BAD for horses. Colic bad. Dead in 24 hours colic bad. I normally give each of them 1 quart in the morning mostly just to supplement the hay. I looked in the barrel and it looked like the Arabian Bandit only ate a few pounds but we had to be careful. Of all the horses to get into the grain, B was probably then best one. He does not take huge mouth fulls, he just nibbles his way through his grain. Takes him twice as long as the other two to eat his grain but that's okay.
The vet suggested that we exercise them a bit so we took them for a walk. We would have liked to ride but it had just stopped raining and the footing was a bit too slippery for comfort. So Kira and I put halters on them and spent the next hour an a half walking the horses around the neighborhood. It was kind of a nice walk actually. Kira and I chatted and I need the exercise as well.
When we got back we checked stomach sounds, all good. Though Ebony got in trouble. Ebony was brood mare and does NOT like an ear pressed into her side. She tried to cow kick me a couple of times. Tried. Enough said.
We put them back in the pasture and then one of the differences between kids and horses became apparent. If the kids had vandalized the barn, they would have cleaned it up. Instead, I was cleaning up the barn while the girls worked on school projects as this is the last week of school. I am bagging up the fouled hay, sorting out the clean hay and cleaning things up. All the while there were three horses following my every move. Ears up, eyes bright, looking very innocent and expectant, wondering when I was going to give them some more hay. The ran away briefly when I turned on a horse eating drill to drive some screws into the stall door guide to fix that.
Just before I went back in to start dinner, I spread out a small bit of hay so that I wouldn't have to deal with the said eyes and mournful faces of three horses who didn't get fed at feeding time. (It was just a small bit of hay and the vet said that would be okay.)
I am happy to report that all three horses were fine the next morning and the pasture was full of poop. No colic.
Horse people must seem really strange to the rest of the civilized world. Not many people find poop an acceptable topic for conversation.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Horses are Strange Critters
Saturday was, as always, a Westernaires weekend. The day was rather interesting from the beginning. We loaded Beamer and Ebony into the trailer and left Mariah home alone. For nearly eight hours. She did fine, better than the other two at any rate.
Kira is doing lessons with Carly on Ebony to help them come together. Kira has been riding a horse for just a couple of months and she is loping bare back. Comfortably and confidently. Kids are fearless. Ebony still tests her but Kira is patient and Carly coaches her until Ebony does what Kira asks. Its fun to watch because Kira's brow creased in frustration suddenly blossoms into a big bright smile. In one lesson Ebony would not pick up her right lead. She wouldn't even step up to a lope from a trot no matter how hard Kira kicker her. I got Kira a dressage whip from the trailer. Kira gave Ebony one pop with the whip and Ebony went right into the lope on the correct lead. Ebony's attitude changed from, "I'm not gona do it and you can't make me!" to. "Oh! You meant it. Why didn't you say so!!"
When we got to Carly's place for the lesson we unloaded Beamer without incident. Ebony is a bit trailer shy right now. She loads okay but she is very nervous while in the trailer. On Saturday when was backing out of the trailer and something spooked her. I did not have a good hold on the lead rope as I had just untied it from the hitching point. She spooked and shot out of the trailer backwards, stumbled and fell over backwards. It was a bit scary as I watched her rump hit the ground and she started to go over backwards and came down on her left side. Her shoulder hit and I watched as her head at the end of that long horse neck headed for the ground. Fortunately, her neck muscles are strong enough that her head did not hit the ground. She looked a bit surprised at finding her self on the ground and hopped right back up. I put her into the trailer a couple of times right away and she backed out of the trailer for slowly. I think she scared herself a bit because she was very careful and slow when backing out of the trailer.
After the lesson we loaded up and headed for Westernaires. Unloading at Westernaires went without incident, Ebony backed out slowly and calmly. And then things got interesting. First, you need to know that Beamer does not like Ebony. He chases her around the pasture and pushes her off her hay. Which is no problem since there are enough hay piles around at feeding time that she just finds another pile. Since it was our first time taking Ebony to Westernaires, we decided to walk her around the grounds to get her used to all the other horses and the activity all around. She was nervous and we worked a lot an getting her walk with her head even with whoever was leading her. She needs more lessons. The surprising part was Beamer. When Ebony walked away from the trailer he started winning and pacing. He did not want her walking away! What!? He doesn't like Ebony and now he can't stand to be separated from her!? I don't get it.
Later that day it was time for Kumi and Beamer to head to dressage class. I walked up with her to watch the class. About 5 minutes into the class my phone rings and its Kira. Now Ebony is having separation anxiety from her bully! She is pacing and pawing and just will not calm down and Kira is a bit nervous and not sure what to do. So I go down and do some more leading lessons with Ebony. She was better but there is still more work to be done. If I tied her at the trailer and stepped out of sight she immediately started pawing and whinnying for Beamer.
When Kumi got back we loaded up the horses and headed for home. The horses were unloaded without incident so we are hoping Ebony has learned a little lesson and trailering will be a bit easier for both her and us. (Besides, we absolutely do not want her shooting out of the trailer and falling over backwards again. No fun at all!) We were also hoping that Ebony and Beamer had discovered that they can actually get along. Nope. As soon as the halters came off and the hay came out, Beamer started pushing Ebony off the hay pile she had selected. Strange animals. But we love 'em anyway.
Kira is doing lessons with Carly on Ebony to help them come together. Kira has been riding a horse for just a couple of months and she is loping bare back. Comfortably and confidently. Kids are fearless. Ebony still tests her but Kira is patient and Carly coaches her until Ebony does what Kira asks. Its fun to watch because Kira's brow creased in frustration suddenly blossoms into a big bright smile. In one lesson Ebony would not pick up her right lead. She wouldn't even step up to a lope from a trot no matter how hard Kira kicker her. I got Kira a dressage whip from the trailer. Kira gave Ebony one pop with the whip and Ebony went right into the lope on the correct lead. Ebony's attitude changed from, "I'm not gona do it and you can't make me!" to. "Oh! You meant it. Why didn't you say so!!"
When we got to Carly's place for the lesson we unloaded Beamer without incident. Ebony is a bit trailer shy right now. She loads okay but she is very nervous while in the trailer. On Saturday when was backing out of the trailer and something spooked her. I did not have a good hold on the lead rope as I had just untied it from the hitching point. She spooked and shot out of the trailer backwards, stumbled and fell over backwards. It was a bit scary as I watched her rump hit the ground and she started to go over backwards and came down on her left side. Her shoulder hit and I watched as her head at the end of that long horse neck headed for the ground. Fortunately, her neck muscles are strong enough that her head did not hit the ground. She looked a bit surprised at finding her self on the ground and hopped right back up. I put her into the trailer a couple of times right away and she backed out of the trailer for slowly. I think she scared herself a bit because she was very careful and slow when backing out of the trailer.
After the lesson we loaded up and headed for Westernaires. Unloading at Westernaires went without incident, Ebony backed out slowly and calmly. And then things got interesting. First, you need to know that Beamer does not like Ebony. He chases her around the pasture and pushes her off her hay. Which is no problem since there are enough hay piles around at feeding time that she just finds another pile. Since it was our first time taking Ebony to Westernaires, we decided to walk her around the grounds to get her used to all the other horses and the activity all around. She was nervous and we worked a lot an getting her walk with her head even with whoever was leading her. She needs more lessons. The surprising part was Beamer. When Ebony walked away from the trailer he started winning and pacing. He did not want her walking away! What!? He doesn't like Ebony and now he can't stand to be separated from her!? I don't get it.
Later that day it was time for Kumi and Beamer to head to dressage class. I walked up with her to watch the class. About 5 minutes into the class my phone rings and its Kira. Now Ebony is having separation anxiety from her bully! She is pacing and pawing and just will not calm down and Kira is a bit nervous and not sure what to do. So I go down and do some more leading lessons with Ebony. She was better but there is still more work to be done. If I tied her at the trailer and stepped out of sight she immediately started pawing and whinnying for Beamer.
When Kumi got back we loaded up the horses and headed for home. The horses were unloaded without incident so we are hoping Ebony has learned a little lesson and trailering will be a bit easier for both her and us. (Besides, we absolutely do not want her shooting out of the trailer and falling over backwards again. No fun at all!) We were also hoping that Ebony and Beamer had discovered that they can actually get along. Nope. As soon as the halters came off and the hay came out, Beamer started pushing Ebony off the hay pile she had selected. Strange animals. But we love 'em anyway.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Beamer Decides He Dosn't Like the Trailer
I should have figured things were going to good to last. The horses were getting into and out of the trailer with no problems, we were having fun at Westernaires and enjoying watching the horses in the back yard.
Then one day, for no apparent or particular reason we can find, Beamer decided he didn't like riding in the trailer. Specifically, he did not like making left hand turns. One day on the way to Westernaires we were making a left hand turn and we felt all kinds of stomping in the trailer. It stopped as soon as we were going straight again but the next left hand turn we made was also accompanied by a lot of stomping. We didn't think to much about it and continued on our way.
When we got to Westernaires we opened the door and were greeted with a bloody trailer. During all that stomping Beamer had managed to break a few of the boards on the side of the trailer and proceeded to knock a chunk off of his coronet band on his left rear hoof. Swell. We cleaned it up a bit and but some tripple antibiotic ointment on it and Kimi rode the rail that day (she sat on the side and watched the other girls ride.) We took Beamer home and called the vet for advise. They came out pretty quick and I got a rather interesting lesson in coronet band injuries. Turns out, antibiotic ointment will cause the coronet band to produce skin cells. The doc had us use straight iodine on the injury and the irritation the iodine causes to the area causes the coronet band to produce hoof wall. Pretty cool. He was not lame at all so we gave him about a week of stall rest and sure enough, at the end of the week the coronet band was healed over. We were VERY lucky with this injury as he didn't damage the coronet band itself, he only scraped the skin cover the band off. He healed fine.
But he was still dancing in the trailer and we didn't want another injury. Naturally, the solution was shipping boots. We got shipping boots and the first time we put them on him we laughed ourselves silly watching Beamer high step and shake his legs in an effort to get the shipping boots off. We bought some cheap shipping boots but they did protect his legs. For a short while. Until he pretty well shredded them up in the trailer.
About this time there was a parade we had to go to. I was out of town so one of the other dads pick up Kumi and Beamer and headed off to the parade. I don't remember exactly why Beamer was not wearing his shipping boots but I do remember that he scraped the coronet band on his right front hoof. Well, at least we knew what to do this time and we still had the iodine from the first time. Again, we were lucky and there was no damage to the coronet tissue itself.
We had to do something else so we bought a better pair of shipping boots. These did protect his legs but he still danced around in the trailer a lot. We figured it was only a matter of time until he hurt something else so off to Craig's List to do a little trailer shopping. We found a nice two horse slant load bumper pull by Trails West Trailers. The price wasn't to bad so we went ahead and bought it. It has a much larger tack room which is really nice for organizing and we have even used it as a changing room.
The horses had no trouble loading and unloading with the new trailer. But Beamer kept dancing. So we kept Beamer in shipping boots. He hates those things to this day. We weren't sure what to do to get him to calm down in the trailer. And then, one day, he quit. He just quit. We don't need to put shipping boots on him now because he stands quietly in the trailer for the whole ride. We may never know what set him off and I hope he doesn't start again. But just in case, the shipping boots are in the trailer tack room, waiting patiently for the day when Beamer decides the trailer is going to eat him.
Then one day, for no apparent or particular reason we can find, Beamer decided he didn't like riding in the trailer. Specifically, he did not like making left hand turns. One day on the way to Westernaires we were making a left hand turn and we felt all kinds of stomping in the trailer. It stopped as soon as we were going straight again but the next left hand turn we made was also accompanied by a lot of stomping. We didn't think to much about it and continued on our way.
When we got to Westernaires we opened the door and were greeted with a bloody trailer. During all that stomping Beamer had managed to break a few of the boards on the side of the trailer and proceeded to knock a chunk off of his coronet band on his left rear hoof. Swell. We cleaned it up a bit and but some tripple antibiotic ointment on it and Kimi rode the rail that day (she sat on the side and watched the other girls ride.) We took Beamer home and called the vet for advise. They came out pretty quick and I got a rather interesting lesson in coronet band injuries. Turns out, antibiotic ointment will cause the coronet band to produce skin cells. The doc had us use straight iodine on the injury and the irritation the iodine causes to the area causes the coronet band to produce hoof wall. Pretty cool. He was not lame at all so we gave him about a week of stall rest and sure enough, at the end of the week the coronet band was healed over. We were VERY lucky with this injury as he didn't damage the coronet band itself, he only scraped the skin cover the band off. He healed fine.
But he was still dancing in the trailer and we didn't want another injury. Naturally, the solution was shipping boots. We got shipping boots and the first time we put them on him we laughed ourselves silly watching Beamer high step and shake his legs in an effort to get the shipping boots off. We bought some cheap shipping boots but they did protect his legs. For a short while. Until he pretty well shredded them up in the trailer.
About this time there was a parade we had to go to. I was out of town so one of the other dads pick up Kumi and Beamer and headed off to the parade. I don't remember exactly why Beamer was not wearing his shipping boots but I do remember that he scraped the coronet band on his right front hoof. Well, at least we knew what to do this time and we still had the iodine from the first time. Again, we were lucky and there was no damage to the coronet tissue itself.
We had to do something else so we bought a better pair of shipping boots. These did protect his legs but he still danced around in the trailer a lot. We figured it was only a matter of time until he hurt something else so off to Craig's List to do a little trailer shopping. We found a nice two horse slant load bumper pull by Trails West Trailers. The price wasn't to bad so we went ahead and bought it. It has a much larger tack room which is really nice for organizing and we have even used it as a changing room.
The horses had no trouble loading and unloading with the new trailer. But Beamer kept dancing. So we kept Beamer in shipping boots. He hates those things to this day. We weren't sure what to do to get him to calm down in the trailer. And then, one day, he quit. He just quit. We don't need to put shipping boots on him now because he stands quietly in the trailer for the whole ride. We may never know what set him off and I hope he doesn't start again. But just in case, the shipping boots are in the trailer tack room, waiting patiently for the day when Beamer decides the trailer is going to eat him.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Got Horse, Got Tack, Whats next...
Well we now have a horse, we have a way to transport said horse from point A to Point B and we have the tack required to ride the horse. Life is looking good. I have since come to understand that when life is looking good, the other boot (usually cover with muck and mud) has not fallen.
I thought it would be a good idea for Beamer's mom, The Instigator to do a few lessons with her new horse just to get acquainted with him. Grammy thought this was a good idea as well so she treated The Instigator to a few lessons. There was a trainer that several of the boarders at the barn used and they all thought she was great. Se we hired her for a few lessons. Yet another lesson learned the hard way. We didn't know anything about her or her methods, we were relying entirely on hear-say around the barn. The first lesson didn't go to bad bit I was starting to suspect that this trainer was better with horses than with people. By the end of the second, and last, lesson with her I was sure. Now The Instigator had not been riding long so she had not built up certain muscles and callouses yet. The trainer kept her on the horse for nearly two hours. I finally had to call an end to the lesson when I saw tears in The Instigator's eyes. Just what I need. A trainer who drove my kid to tears for no apparent reason. These were just basic riding lessons. That was the end of that.
The Instigator was doing well riding Beamer so we decided it was time to take him down to Westernaires and introduce him to the madness and mayhem otherwise known as the owner's parking lot. Now the other boot falls. Did you know that it takes a while for a horse to learn to trust a new owner? Did you know that some horses will refuse to get in "that large scary cave where lions live on wheels", otherwise known as a trailer, until they trust you? I know that now. We did manage to get him into the trailer in not too much time and get down to Westernaires. It took us two hours to get him in the trailer to come home and we were the last trailer out of there that night. We were a little perturbed, to say the least.
Time for a trainer. We went back to the first trainer since we really didn't know anybody else to turn to. She was able to get the horse into the trailer fairly easily. But she couldn't teach us how to do it. After several weeks we were no better off. Beamer would get into the trailer for her, but not for us and we were not making any progress. Then one day while we were working on trailering, a new trainer showed up at the barn. She was there to work with somebody else and saw us trying to get the horse in the trailer. It was not going well and she took mercy on us. She came over and showed us how to get the horse in the trailer and explained a bit of what she was doing. Her method was a bit different than the first trainer and with a little explanation behind us, we at least had chance of getting the horse into the trailer. In the end, instead of taking over an hour to get the horse in the trailer, it ended up taking us about a half-hour to get the horse in the trailer. Better, but still not right.
So one Saturday we were trying to load the horse and friend of one of the other boarders showed up. She saw us struggling to get the horse into the trailer and asked us if we needed help. I politely said now, that we needed to work this out for ourselves. She said that she was a certified Parelli trainer and she could help us. So I said okay. She didn't do anything real different than the other trainers had done except she provided a much better explanation of what we were doing wrong and how to fix it.
The first two trainers basically took the approach that you drive the horse and work it hard enough so that the trailer becomes a safe place to rest. But we were working the horse so hard that he was no longer thinking. This trainer got us to all calm down and then showed us how to apply pressure to the horse by tapping lightly on the flank to encourage the horse to step forward. 5 minutes later the horse was in the trailer. We backed the horse out and The Instigator and I tried. Took a bit longer, but we got the horse into the trailer. That young lady moved away within the week but she did give us some good direction and peak our interest in Parelli.
Now this whole adventure lasted some three or four months. It was no small source of frustration for us and even after or brief experience with Parelli methods, it was still not perfect. He would jerk his head up and back and it was by the grace of God alone that he never managed to split his head open. But during this whole time The Instigator was continuing to work with Beamer. She was riding and grooming and doing round pen work. As we gained a bit more confidence in ourselves and Beamer came to trust us a bit more the trailering challenge resolved itself. All we have to do now is walk him to the back of the trailer, toss the lead rope over his back and tell him to step up. He steps right into the trailer and stands calmly.
So what did learn from this. Talk to potential trainers. Trainers need to do two things well. First, they need to be able to train a horse. This one is pretty obvious but you need to know how this person works with horses and have they trained enough horses to really know what they are doing. Second, and more importantly, they need to be able to train you. Horses learn fairly quickly if you are consistent and patient. Most of us are neither consistent nor patient. And that is where a good trainer really comes through. We lack consistency and patience because we do not know what we need to do. When a horse does something we don't want it to do and we don't know how make it stop, we get mad and do the wrong stuff that usally makes the situation worse. A good trainer can show you what to do and explain why you do it. Once you know that, when the horse acts up, you know what to do and it is so much easier to remain calm.
Okay, so the tally stand thus:
Daughter: $900.00 for horse
Dad: $100 dollars for horse
$950 for trailer
$550 for receiver and hitch.
$300 first months boarding
$450 for saddle, breast collar and cinch
$120 for saddle pad
$200 for headstall, reigns and grooming supplies
$75 for miscellaneous sundries such as muck rake and bucket and the like.
$200 for trailer training
$1200 for four months board.
$50 for grain (Grain! Are you kidding me! Why do hay burners need grain! Next up - nutrition)
I thought it would be a good idea for Beamer's mom, The Instigator to do a few lessons with her new horse just to get acquainted with him. Grammy thought this was a good idea as well so she treated The Instigator to a few lessons. There was a trainer that several of the boarders at the barn used and they all thought she was great. Se we hired her for a few lessons. Yet another lesson learned the hard way. We didn't know anything about her or her methods, we were relying entirely on hear-say around the barn. The first lesson didn't go to bad bit I was starting to suspect that this trainer was better with horses than with people. By the end of the second, and last, lesson with her I was sure. Now The Instigator had not been riding long so she had not built up certain muscles and callouses yet. The trainer kept her on the horse for nearly two hours. I finally had to call an end to the lesson when I saw tears in The Instigator's eyes. Just what I need. A trainer who drove my kid to tears for no apparent reason. These were just basic riding lessons. That was the end of that.
The Instigator was doing well riding Beamer so we decided it was time to take him down to Westernaires and introduce him to the madness and mayhem otherwise known as the owner's parking lot. Now the other boot falls. Did you know that it takes a while for a horse to learn to trust a new owner? Did you know that some horses will refuse to get in "that large scary cave where lions live on wheels", otherwise known as a trailer, until they trust you? I know that now. We did manage to get him into the trailer in not too much time and get down to Westernaires. It took us two hours to get him in the trailer to come home and we were the last trailer out of there that night. We were a little perturbed, to say the least.
Time for a trainer. We went back to the first trainer since we really didn't know anybody else to turn to. She was able to get the horse into the trailer fairly easily. But she couldn't teach us how to do it. After several weeks we were no better off. Beamer would get into the trailer for her, but not for us and we were not making any progress. Then one day while we were working on trailering, a new trainer showed up at the barn. She was there to work with somebody else and saw us trying to get the horse in the trailer. It was not going well and she took mercy on us. She came over and showed us how to get the horse in the trailer and explained a bit of what she was doing. Her method was a bit different than the first trainer and with a little explanation behind us, we at least had chance of getting the horse into the trailer. In the end, instead of taking over an hour to get the horse in the trailer, it ended up taking us about a half-hour to get the horse in the trailer. Better, but still not right.
So one Saturday we were trying to load the horse and friend of one of the other boarders showed up. She saw us struggling to get the horse into the trailer and asked us if we needed help. I politely said now, that we needed to work this out for ourselves. She said that she was a certified Parelli trainer and she could help us. So I said okay. She didn't do anything real different than the other trainers had done except she provided a much better explanation of what we were doing wrong and how to fix it.
The first two trainers basically took the approach that you drive the horse and work it hard enough so that the trailer becomes a safe place to rest. But we were working the horse so hard that he was no longer thinking. This trainer got us to all calm down and then showed us how to apply pressure to the horse by tapping lightly on the flank to encourage the horse to step forward. 5 minutes later the horse was in the trailer. We backed the horse out and The Instigator and I tried. Took a bit longer, but we got the horse into the trailer. That young lady moved away within the week but she did give us some good direction and peak our interest in Parelli.
Now this whole adventure lasted some three or four months. It was no small source of frustration for us and even after or brief experience with Parelli methods, it was still not perfect. He would jerk his head up and back and it was by the grace of God alone that he never managed to split his head open. But during this whole time The Instigator was continuing to work with Beamer. She was riding and grooming and doing round pen work. As we gained a bit more confidence in ourselves and Beamer came to trust us a bit more the trailering challenge resolved itself. All we have to do now is walk him to the back of the trailer, toss the lead rope over his back and tell him to step up. He steps right into the trailer and stands calmly.
So what did learn from this. Talk to potential trainers. Trainers need to do two things well. First, they need to be able to train a horse. This one is pretty obvious but you need to know how this person works with horses and have they trained enough horses to really know what they are doing. Second, and more importantly, they need to be able to train you. Horses learn fairly quickly if you are consistent and patient. Most of us are neither consistent nor patient. And that is where a good trainer really comes through. We lack consistency and patience because we do not know what we need to do. When a horse does something we don't want it to do and we don't know how make it stop, we get mad and do the wrong stuff that usally makes the situation worse. A good trainer can show you what to do and explain why you do it. Once you know that, when the horse acts up, you know what to do and it is so much easier to remain calm.
Okay, so the tally stand thus:
Daughter: $900.00 for horse
Dad: $100 dollars for horse
$950 for trailer
$550 for receiver and hitch.
$300 first months boarding
$450 for saddle, breast collar and cinch
$120 for saddle pad
$200 for headstall, reigns and grooming supplies
$75 for miscellaneous sundries such as muck rake and bucket and the like.
$200 for trailer training
$1200 for four months board.
$50 for grain (Grain! Are you kidding me! Why do hay burners need grain! Next up - nutrition)
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Second Pound of Flesh
saddle.
Yep, time to start looking at tack. The previous owner sent us home with Beamer's bit and we had purchased a halter and lead rope. So we have a bit. No headstall, no reigns, no saddle, no saddle pad or blanket, no grooming brushes, water bucket, nothing. Zip. Nada. Nil. We live close to Colorado Saddlery and we have a small feed and tack store down the street. We went to Colorado saddlery where we found a grooming kit, a nice leather headstall, reigns and a whip for lunging in the round pen. Not bad.
Next we are off to the tack store with the horse, just to make sure things fit properly. We start to look at saddles. The deal was that I would get the first saddle, a fairly basic saddle, and she would save up and buy the saddle of her dreams later. So we found what we thought was a nice little synthetic western saddle by King Saddles. (This decision will come back to haunt me in the not to distant future.) Did you know that cinch straps do not come with the saddle? Well I didn't. Do you know how much a cinch strap costs? Basically, how much do you want to spend but we found one that fit the horse, will do the job but was not overly flashy. Doing good. My next lesson follows immediately, "Dad, I need a breast collar." A what? Off we go to look at breast collars. Leather. Nylon. Full bling. No bling. Tooled. Do you know how much breast collars cost? Well, they're a lot like cinches that way, how much do you want to spend. Beamer's mom found a nice nylon green one, her favorite color, and she was happy. (This turns out to be yet another decision that will prove to be less than perfect as time goes on. *sigh* Steep learning curve.)
Next we found a good wool saddle pad. I invested a bit more in the pad since that will be next to the horse and I wanted the horse to be comfortable. We also found a muck rake, a muck bucket a water bucket and a hoof pick. We load everything into the truck and head for the ranch. So here is where things stand now:
Daughter: $900.00 for horse
Dad: $100 dollars for horse
$950 for trailer
$550 for receiver and hitch.
$300 first months boarding
$450 for saddle, breast collar and cinch
$120 for saddle pad
$200 for headstall, reigns and grooming supplies
$75 for miscellaneous sundries such as muck rake and bucket and the like.
I am beginning to suspect that I may have gotten the short end of this deal. It is just a glimmer of an idea at this point. but it is definitely starting to grow. One the other hand, the smiles of ones daughter sure make a whole bunch of crazy things seem better. So here is what the final ensemble looks like.
Yep, time to start looking at tack. The previous owner sent us home with Beamer's bit and we had purchased a halter and lead rope. So we have a bit. No headstall, no reigns, no saddle, no saddle pad or blanket, no grooming brushes, water bucket, nothing. Zip. Nada. Nil. We live close to Colorado Saddlery and we have a small feed and tack store down the street. We went to Colorado saddlery where we found a grooming kit, a nice leather headstall, reigns and a whip for lunging in the round pen. Not bad.
Next we are off to the tack store with the horse, just to make sure things fit properly. We start to look at saddles. The deal was that I would get the first saddle, a fairly basic saddle, and she would save up and buy the saddle of her dreams later. So we found what we thought was a nice little synthetic western saddle by King Saddles. (This decision will come back to haunt me in the not to distant future.) Did you know that cinch straps do not come with the saddle? Well I didn't. Do you know how much a cinch strap costs? Basically, how much do you want to spend but we found one that fit the horse, will do the job but was not overly flashy. Doing good. My next lesson follows immediately, "Dad, I need a breast collar." A what? Off we go to look at breast collars. Leather. Nylon. Full bling. No bling. Tooled. Do you know how much breast collars cost? Well, they're a lot like cinches that way, how much do you want to spend. Beamer's mom found a nice nylon green one, her favorite color, and she was happy. (This turns out to be yet another decision that will prove to be less than perfect as time goes on. *sigh* Steep learning curve.)
Next we found a good wool saddle pad. I invested a bit more in the pad since that will be next to the horse and I wanted the horse to be comfortable. We also found a muck rake, a muck bucket a water bucket and a hoof pick. We load everything into the truck and head for the ranch. So here is where things stand now:
Daughter: $900.00 for horse
Dad: $100 dollars for horse
$950 for trailer
$550 for receiver and hitch.
$300 first months boarding
$450 for saddle, breast collar and cinch
$120 for saddle pad
$200 for headstall, reigns and grooming supplies
$75 for miscellaneous sundries such as muck rake and bucket and the like.
I am beginning to suspect that I may have gotten the short end of this deal. It is just a glimmer of an idea at this point. but it is definitely starting to grow. One the other hand, the smiles of ones daughter sure make a whole bunch of crazy things seem better. So here is what the final ensemble looks like.
Monday, February 7, 2011
“I Promise” or How I lost at “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”
I promise. Two simple little words spoken in response to a question from my oldest daughter. It was one of those incredibly stupid things that parents sometimes say before their brains fully engage. My oldest wanted a horse. Bad. She was constantly begging us to get her a horse. Since we lived in a patio home in the city a horse did not figure into our plans. So in a stroke of brilliance I said to my daughter, “I promise to help you own a horse if you can buy it.” Now, I knew enough to know that a horse with any kind of reasonable training on it would be between $2,500 and $5,000 in our area. My daughter was eleven at the time and that is a huge sum of money for a kid to come up with. I was safe. Yeah, right.
My oldest daughter is in Westernaires. For those of you that do not live in the Denver metro area, Westernaires is a youth organization located in Jefferson County, Colorado. The members range in age from 9 to 19 or until they graduate from high school. They ride in teams that range from about 20 to 50 kids on a team (there is one team right now with 78 girls!). They ride mounted drills such as forming propellers, the Mariners Cross, thread the needle and the like. They start drills as young kids at a trot and progress to doing all drills at a lope. My daughter joined it when she was 11 as a way to be near and ride horses consistently. Pretty good deal actually, $25.00 annual dues and $10.00 per ride to rent one of the over 100 string horses. There are between 800 and 1,000 kids in the organization at any given time.
It is also a great social organization for the parents. You make friends and have a couple hours every Saturday to chat. Well, my “friends” heard that my daughter was looking for a horse and one them pointed out an ad for a horse. A Polish Arabian gelding that was selling for $5,000 but had been marked down to $1,000. I agreed to go look at the horse.
The lady who owned the horse had already decided not to sell it but then she met my daughter. She liked my daughter and spent several days horseback riding with her. Turns out, the horse was amazingly well trained and a temperament that makes him patient with first time riders yet willing to go for an advanced rider. Dang. A great horse. When a “knows nothing about horses” type like myself can recognize a good horse its time to call in the vet for a vet check. He passed with flying colors. My daughter had $900 saved up and I am faced with a choice. Take the legalistic way out and say she doesn’t have enough money or give her the final $100 and honor my promise. I says to myself, “Self, how bad can it be to own a horse? Not all that bad.” So I loan her the money and as a good father and a good Christian, I honor the promise. She bought the horse. It’s in her name! It is her horse. Here is Beamer's new mom meeting Beamer for the first time.
Okay. Now it’s time to take the horse home. How do you get a horse home? A trailer. But I am a city boy and I have no trailer. I have never towed a trailer. The thought of backing a trailer scares me. But I promised. So off to Craigslist to search for a
Okay. Now it’s time to take the horse home. How do you get a horse home? A trailer. But I am a city boy and I have no trailer. I have never towed a trailer. The thought of backing a trailer scares me. But I promised. So off to Craigslist to search for a
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